I’m not going to sugar coat this: the next few years are going to be some of the worst in the history of our country. I have been having a hard time letting mind do what it does: making calculations on everything that is going to be destroyed by Trump. My mind just can’t wrap itself around all of it.
The Supreme Court is lost to us for another thirty years. Not by a 5-4 majority, but probably by a 6-3. That, we know. Trans Canada has already released a statement about how they’re looking forward to working with Trump to finish Keystone. The Dakota Pipeline will definitely be moving forward, since Trump is a big investor in that project. I can go on and on, but I’m not going to.
If Mitch McConnell kills the filibuster, we and the democrats (even if they found their spines) would be powerless. We all just need to accept this situation.
This piece is about what you can expect from me, and where the focus of this blog and my social media presence will be.
Let me start by saying that I do intend to shift the focus more toward the issues of the blue collar base that elected Trump. Yes, I will continue to bring attention to the environmental devastation that this administration will bring, but I just feel that focusing in on issues that only matter to liberals isn’t the best use of my platform at this time. There will be plenty of outlets who will be laser focused on those issues. We are going to have a myriad of issues that are going to have immediately dire consequences, and they’re going to be issues that we never thought we were really going to have to deal with (like what’s about to happen to social security, the repeal of a bunch of LGBTQ rights, Obamacare, etc). This won’t be a major shift in the content I provide you, but it will definitely be a shift.
I will be very very cautious about posting anything that resembles speculation about what Trump is going to do. He’s an extremely volatile person who has clearly demonstrated two things about himself:
- He doesn’t have any real convictions on most issues (for example he was pro life until he was anti choice) so his views turn on a dime.
- He doesn’t understand very much about either domestic or foreign policy issues.
I saw an article about how Trump’s wall is already turning into a fence yesterday. As I read the story, I learned that congressional republicans are meeting with Trump with a proposal to turn the wall into a fence. I won’t be sharing stories like that, because they don’t contain anything substantive. I will be posting more about things that have happened, and what they mean to you. Events will be unfolding in a fast and furious way over the next six months. I don’t see much value in anticipating the next terrible thing, when I can spend that time delving deeply into the ramifications of the terrible thing that has already happened.
I will limit the “character” stories. Trump is a terrible person. We all know that. I will be focused on the terrible things he’s doing to you, more than on the terrible person that he is. I will not be posting about the rape allegations unless something actually happens. I will not be writing about the groping, stealing, cheating, and general douchiness unless something tangible happens because of it.
Why the shift? Because I want to arm people who follow my content with information that can be discussed with republicans in the form of issues that are actually affecting them. I want you to be able to listen to someone who feels they’re getting screwed by their country, and be able to walk them through exactly why what’s happening to them is happening.
I will be writing more about my thoughts on the path forward. I’ve written about this in the past, but not recently. We have to work toward a constitutional amendment to remove corporate personhood and get money out of our political system. I will write more on this later.
I do not advocate this insane notion of petitioning the electoral college to go rogue. The electoral college is an inane system that we need to fix legislatively. But asking them to take matters in their own hands will come back to bite you in the ass, and it’s just as destructive to our democracy as cheering on a senate that won’t let a democratically elected president seat a Supreme Court justice. I’m not interested in further deteriorating what’s left of our system to solve an immediate problem. Part of living in a developed country is that you sometimes have to eat a shit sandwich that your fellow citizens have prepared for you. I suggest you stock up on breath mints.
Trump won under our asinine system, and we need to accept that.
We all need to start communicating with our local and state legislators because that’s the only place where anything good could happen for the next two years. I will need your help on this, since I can’t be in every county of every state. Please share important legislative issues that are happening locally around you. I will take a look at them and share to my social media outlets.
As a sunny optimist, I believe that the suffering we’re about to experience will bring us to a much better place. Political shifts come in cycles. During the primaries when Hillary was winning almost exclusively with people over fifty, I said that the baby boomers were never a particularly liberal generation. They were once proud Reagan Democrats. They weren’t all that liberal because they didn’t have to be. The homes they grew up in, the college money they had, the relative equality of opportunity that they enjoyed was made possible by FDR’s flaming liberal policies. Conservatism is a luxury item that people (both democrats and republicans) tend to buy when they can afford it. You don’t have to fight for something that you already have. And even liberals’ capacity for empathy is limited. Hence the sudden realization that black people are being killed by police all across the country, despite the fact that they have been telling us this for decades. Now that we can see it, we can empathize. Frank Luntz referred to millennials as “terrifying liberal”. That’s because they don’t have the opportunities that the boomers had. It’s cyclical. After four years of Trump, “terrifying liberal” is going spread beyond the millennials. My generation (Gen X) is split pretty evenly. We’re not going to be split evenly a year from now, I promise you that.
But we have to play the long game, and not try to find instant gratification like that crazy electoral college thing. We also need to stop with the #notmypresident crap. This is what they did to Obama. Stop being petulant. After every election, about half of us get a president we find appalling. That’s just life. You can oppose Trump, you can expose all of the sleazy and destructive things that he does, you can speak out against him every day but don’t be a child about it. If we do this, after they did this, it will become a normal thing to delegitimize a president who was legitimately elected. Peaceful protest is good, and I completely support it. But petulance is not. Wait for him to do things that warrant protest, otherwise you just become background noise.
We need not to give birth to a lunatic left that resembles the (now) entirety of the right wing. Lunacy grows like pancreatic cancer. That’s the really bad kind that spreads quickly and always kills you, in case you’re not familiar. You need to stop engaging your lunatic #jillnothill friends who were sharing breitbart links in an effort to demonize Hillary. They’ve lost their minds and moved so far left, that they’ve actually looped around and joined the ugliest parts of the right. The only way to stop this particular cancer is to quarantine it. They are dark, hateful, and batshit crazy. Trust me, they will only cause you grief.
Now I’m going to say something seemingly contradictory: you should listed to opposing opinions. As long as someone is willing to have a respectful discussion with you, and provide credible links for what they say, you should make an effort to listen but only if they’re not crazy. Sharing links from fringe sites and disregarding actual journalism is a sign of crazy. If someone is willing to have an intellectually honest conversation with you, you should be able to engage them and consider what they say.
And for the love of god, stop projecting motives on people. When I posted stories demonstrating that Jill Stein and Gary Johnson were dolts, it’s because they were dolts. It had nothing to do with my advocacy that we needed to save the republic by voting for Hillary. I was very adept at making that point as a stand alone, if you recall. I don’t view politics emotionally. I form every opinion and make every observation with no emotional attachment at all. I remember when the second half of the Nevada primary happened, and Bernie ended up winning because Hillary’s (she won the first half of that primary) delegates didn’t show up. I posted the results and shared my opinion that I didn’t think it was fair even though I was still supporting Bernie at the time. If something is fair when it works for you, it’s fair when it works against you. This is not complicated. If a private email server enraged you when the Bush administration did it, it should have enraged you when Hillary did it. This isn’t complicated. I was enraged both times, and still concluded that I had to vote for Hillary in the general. Mind blowing, I know. But I sincerely wish it weren’t. None of us, not you, not me, and not anyone we know are uncomplicated. We are all a mix of good, evil, rational, nuts, and every combination of character traits that exist in the human race. If you don’t understand why someone would be enraged about Hillary’s emails and then advocate for supporting her: listen to them. And if they give you an explanation, listen to it. Stop projecting your bullshit on other people in order to award yourself an imaginary intellectual victory because that’s where communication breaks down.
I did a lot of blocking of self professed liberals through this election cycle, and I’m sure you did too. Don’t be a douchey liberal, that’s all I’m asking. If you don’t like something someone posts on social media, debunk it. Don’t name call. You’re not tearing them down, you’re demonstrating that you’re a douche.
I’m going to stop here for now, but I have a lot more to say regarding the election. For now, please go to:
and
These will both give you clues on what I plan to advise in terms of a path forward.
